Video: Nondestructive transformations with Smart Objects

If you're doing any design work or any compositing, and you've gotten multiple images, and you're making those images larger or smaller, you'll soon find out that the free transform command is a destructive command. So in this tutorial, I want to show you how to use smart objects, so that when you transform your images, you're not losing any image quality. We'll start over here with this left waterfall. You can see that I have it selected in my Layers panel. And if I just select Edit, and then Transform, and Scale.

Learning how to use Adobe Photoshop efficiently and effectively is the best way to get the most out of your pixels and create stunning imagery. Master the fundamentals of this program with Julieanne Kost, and discover how to achieve the results you want with Photoshop and its companion programs, Bridge and Camera Raw. This comprehensive course covers nondestructive editing techniques using layers, masking, adjustment layers, blend modes, and Smart Objects. Find out how to perform common editing tasks, including lens correction, cropping and straightening, color and tonal adjustments, noise reduction, shadow and highlight detail recovery, sharpening, and retouching. Julieanne also shows how to achieve more creative effects with filters, layer effects, illustrative type, and the Photomerge command for creating panoramas and composites.

Topics include:

Using Bridge to batch rename files and add keywords and metadata to photos

Viewing, rating, filtering, and creating collections to isolate your best work

Nondestructive transformations with Smart Objects

If you're doing any design work or anycompositing, and you've gotten multiple images, and you're makingthose images larger or smaller, you'll soon find outthat the free transform command is a destructive command.So in this tutorial, I want to show you how to use smart objects,so that when you transform your images, you're not losing any image quality.We'll start over here with this left waterfall.You can see that I have it selected in my Layers panel.And if I just select Edit, and then Transform, and Scale.

And if we hold down the Shift key and the Optionkey, in order to constrain the proportions and scale from the center.If I make this image really small, and then I applythat transformation, if I change my mind later, and I want to goto Edit> Transform, and make my image larger again by scalingit up, when I scale it up, it's going to look terrible.So now I'll click the Check Mark.

And you can see how much information I've lost, becausewhen I scaled the information down using free transform, Photoshop threwaway all of the extraneous information, and then when Iscaled it back up, Photoshop had to make up that information.So, I'm going to use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+Z to undo that transformation,and then Cmd+Option+Z to undo the transformation before that.I was just stepping back in history, on Windows of course, that would be Ctrl+Zto undo the last thing you've done, andthen Ctrl+Alt+Z in order to step backwards again.

So this time, before I transform my layer, I'm goingto convert my layer into what's called a Smart Object.In order to do this, I'll select the Layermenu, and then Smart Objects, and Convert to Smart Object.Now, the only way that I know that this is a Smart Object, is by looking atthe Layers panel, and we can see the smalladditional icon on the thumbnail next to the layer.That is my smart object thumbnail.Now, with this layer selected, if I choose Edit> Transform andthen Scale, and I hold down the Option and the Shiftkey, and we make this image really small, and then Itap the Return key or the Enter key to apply that transformation.

If I change my mind, and this time instead of the, using the menu item, I'm going touse the keyboard shortcut, which is Cmd on the Mac, Ctrl on Windows, plus the t key.That takes me right to free transform.We can see I've got the transformation handleshere, so I'll hold down Option and Shift.We'll scale this right back up to like 100%, andyou'll notice that when I release the cursor, and tapthe enter key, or the return key in order toapply that transformation, I still have all of the original information.

So, what's going on?Well, as soon as you convert your layer into a smart object.Photoshop starts keeping track of all of that informationunder the hood, so that, when you scale yourimage down, Photoshop still has all of the highresolution information, it's just showing you a lower resolution preview.That way, you can change your mind, and you can scale your images, or skew them,or distort them, as many times as you want to, without losing any quality.

So for added flexibility when you're working with different layouts, especiallywhen you're working with images that you know that you're goingto transform, if you convert them into a smart object beforeapplying any scaling or rotation, you won't lose any image quality.It might make your file a little bit larger,but to me the added flexibility is well worth it.

A: When Creative Cloud applications are updated, we refresh
our training to make sure it covers the latest features and interface changes
from Adobe. This update covers changes to Camera Raw, including nondestructive
cropping, workflow and output settings, and the ability to save multiple files
automatically.

Q: This course was updated on 6/18/2014. What changed?

A: In June 2014 Adobe released new features for Photoshop CC and
added enhancements to several existing features. We added movies to
introduce the new Focus Mask and Blur Gallery features, and changed
several movies to reflect updates to instant type preview, font search,
Typekit, Liquify, Content-Aware Fill, Adobe Camera Raw, and Smart Guides.

Q: This course was updated on 10/06/2014. What changed?

A: We updated this course to reflect the October 2014
changes to Photoshop CC. There are 16 new movies, which are indicated by the
"(CC 2014.1)" tag that appears next to their names.

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